Cultivating respect for dirt

When did dirt become such a dirty word?  Think about it.  How many negative associations we have with dirt and dirty. Even though we were born of dirt and will someday return to the dirt we speak ever so negatively of dirt.  We talk of people that “fight dirty”, “dirty old men”, doing “dirty deeds”, getting “dirty looks” and keeping “dirty little secrets”.  The list goes on.

Our cultural revulsion to dirt is evidenced in burial practices.  It has become common to keep the dead indefinitely removed from their natural elements by placing bodies in a metal caskets that are then sealed underground in a concrete vault. I don’t find it a pleasant thought to consider many of us will wait in purgatory for centuries filled with embalming fluid in a cement vault until we finally return back to dirt.  Others will expedite the process of returning to dirt by cremation, or better yet by having a green funeral.

Ironic, isn’t it that we put down dirt, yet we’re all made out of dirt.  We’re just an elaborate mix of the elements contained in dirt, mixed with a little water and air.  No wonder it isn’t easy to “clean up our act” when we’re really just glorified dirt balls.

Part of our problem is we really don’t know or appreciate dirt.  It is much more complex than we give it credit. Our institutions of higher learning have recognized the soiled reputation of dirt and now have departments of “soil science”.  Seems a pretty fancy title for the study of dirt.

Recently studies have discovered that a little dirt is good for children.  It trains their immune systems to avoid allergies and fight diseases.

Dirt is also important to us in a variety of additional ways.  It is the medium of crop production and plant growth, producer and absorber of gases, waste decomposer, filter for water and wastes and home to plants and animals.

I would propose we all work to develop a much greater respect for dirt.  Native cultures consider the earth to be our mother. We haven’t been nearly so respectful of our environment. With global weirding I’m reminded of a variation on a wise old proverb, if Mother Earth ain’t happy, ain’t nobody going to be happy.

Some medical doctors know of the intrinsic value of dirt.  Word is that one physician is known to frequently prescribe mud baths to his terminally ill patients.  When asked about the efficacy of this mud therapy he has to admit it won’t cure them, but it will get them used to the dirt.

We’re all terminal aren’t we?  I shared this thought with my 98 year-old Grandmother and she quickly retorted, “yes, but how long is our term?”

However long our term, my fellow mortal, please know thyself, thy name is dirt. And it is good.

Respect for dirt

Plant rooted in the soil

What does it mean to treat someone or something like dirt?  Perhaps showing total disrespect?

Seems that dirt, or soil, the base of our environment, has long been under appreciated and often abused.

Did you know that much of the world's topsoil is being eroded?

Every second, a dump-truck load of topsoil is carried by American rivers into the Caribbean; every year, hundreds of millions of tons of topsoil erode from farmers' fields in the Mississippi River basin. "An estimated 36% of the world's cropland is suffering from decline in inherent productivity from soil erosion", reports Lester Brown, one of the world's leading ecosystem monitors. Globally we are losing more than 10 million hectares of arable land a year, with soil loss exceeding new soil production by 23 billion tons, resulting in the loss of 0.5 percent or more of the worlds' fertility annually.  (Woody Tasch, Inquiries into the nature of slow money, investing as if food, farms and fertility mattered).

It takes 500 years to create just one inch of topsoil.  So it seems we ought to take soil erosion very seriously.

Not only is much of our soil being lost by erosion, it is also losing its fertility.  Soil scientist Hans Jenny found that after 60 years of cultivation the farm soils in Missouri had lost a third of their organic matter.

What's in our soil?  Each gram of fertile soil contains hundreds of millions of bacteria and actinomycetes, hundreds of thousands of fungi and algae, and tens of thousands of protozoa, nematodes and other microfauna.  (Woody Tesch, Inquiries into the nature of slow money, investing as if food, farms and fertility mattered).

One of the key players in our soil are the earthworms.  Darwin estimated that 50,000 earthworms carry 18 tons of soil to the surface of an acre.  There can be an astonishing number of earthworms in an acre of soil... up to two million!

So, as we consider sustainability of this beautiful home we call Earth, it behoves us to recognize the critical role the soil plays, and start treating it with greater respect. To be well rooted and productive, future generations will still need good dirt in which to grow.

Wouldn't it be nice to change our perspective on dirt, so that in future generations when someone says he/she is being "treated like dirt", they're being shown great respect!